Utah-based virtual reality company Future House Studios minted its office deed as an NFT (non-fungible token), marking the first time an office building has been put on blockchain. Future House Studios used a new legal model through TruMint that allows real property to remain and transact indefinitely on blockchains with reduced transaction costs.
“In the near future, our office will exist as a 3D world where remote team members from LA to NY to Brazil and across the world can come to collaborate and work with the on-site, in-office team members in a metaverse. We truly are a studio built in the metaverse,” Future House Studios founder Adam Sidwell said in a release. “As an extension of that commitment, we worked with TruMint to mint title to our company’s office in an NFT that we hold in a wallet and can transfer on the blockchain.”
Several residential properties have transacted on the blockchain in the last two years. However, those models required the use of a legal entity, such as a limited liability company, to hold title to real estate, according to TruMint. That requires owners to pay annual upkeep or franchise tax.
“We have created a legal lockbox that effectively puts real-world title into cold storage that then allows a NFT ‘digital deed’ to transact indefinitely on-chain,” TruMint co-founder and crypto attorney William Barlow said. “At any point, the NFT holder can retrieve the real-world title by returning the NFT ‘key’ to the lockbox.”
TruMint aims to make the legal sale of real estate as simple as the transfer of any other NFT, with additional security measures, and in such a way that all real estate purchase requirements are satisfied in all 50 states.
“We are excited to be working with Future House Studios to creatively harness blockchain technology to simplify the sale and purchase of real estate,” TruMint co-founder and tax and crypto attorney Ephraim Olson said. “Our companies both believe in this technology and that it will be the future of real estate transactions. We believe the solution we have developed will revolutionize how real estate transacts and will potentially allow ownership of any real-world asset to be recorded on a public blockchain and then transferred, bought, and sold indefinitely, with greater efficiency and lower cost.”